In one of these booths, situated in a rehearsal room at Adelaide's Dunstan Playhouse, sits Joeri Smet, one of Ontroerend Goed's founders, just before Internal's final performance at the Adelaide festival – after that, the company will embark on the third part of their immersive theatre trilogy, A Game Of You.

Having performed Internal in several countries, Smet believes British people take the transgression of public/private boundaries much more seriously than other nations. "I don't want to make generalisations, but that causes a lot of unease for British people. It''s not like that on the continent and here in Australia people are OK with it much more – 'Sure you can tell that about me'."

Smet maintains that the company never explicitly divulge anything truly personal or painful, but couch it in general terms. "I will say that someone is making a very big step in their lives and it's very frightening but also challenging – I wouldn't reveal what the big step is."

He denies that he is exploiting the audience's vulnerabilities. "They always have the choice whether to engage or not." No-one has ever walked out - "they stay to the end out of curiosity. It's been said many times that you get as much out of the trilogy as you put in so I guess it's a 50/50 thing."

Ontroerend Goed's exploration of how much audiences will take lead them into hot water at Edinburgh in 2011, when their show Audience – which isn't showing in Adelaide – featured the one performer training a video camera onto a woman in the audience, and bullying her into opening her legs. Other audience members were furious – after that, they used a plant.

"I found it difficult that all the reviews focused so much on that one moment in the show because it's about a lot more," says Smet. "The ethical dimension of the show suddenly became the most important theme, which I found [to be] a reduction of the whole thing." They toned it down "so people could actually see that the show isn't about somebody being bullied in the audience."

As for the woman they picked on, "we had contact with her and with the people surrounding her and in the end it was OK. From what I heard it was not herself who was really angry about it – it was more the people around her."

Smet says that the controversy over his company's shows is overblown. "There are some myths that surround the trilogy. People who have expectations of really extreme things happening might be disappointed. It's all about getting in contact with each other in a respectful way. In The Smile off Your Face we're exploring your physical trust, which is never damaged."

The Guardian's reviewer Claire Armitstead suggested that recent scandals about abuse and exploitation have made The Smile off Your Face seem much darker than when first performed in 2004. "I can see how people invest new meaning it but it's not a deliberate thing," says Smet. "The show is exactly the same as when it was developed."

At its climax, the audience member's blindfold is removed and an actor talks through their experience, finally bursting into tears. How many people have cried along with him?

"Many," says Smet. "More women than men, but men also cry."

Does that make him punch the air?

"I don't go 'Yes!' - it's great that people are so touched by it," says Smet. "And I don't always know why they cry. I can get that The Smile Off Your Face makes you cry – it probably would make me cry as well. It's about being taken care of physically and being on that bed and having a very intimate conversation. I have to say that many people go and say 'I haven't been touched in this way physically, intimately, in so many years' and sometimes I find it a bit sad to hear that. There are a lot of people who have a lack of intimacy in their lives."

So is the trilogy theatre, therapy or, as the Guardian's Lyn Gardner once concluded (though she later changed her mind), aromatherapy? "Maybe it's not classical theatre but it is a theatrical performance with just a different approach to the audience – they're in the show instead of watching it from outside," says Smet. "It's not therapy, but creative acts."

The company's next show will be called Fight Night, which Smet says will be more like Audience than the immersive trilogy. "It's five actors and one presenter who try to stay on stage and people vote them off - but apart from that it's also reflecting on democracy and the fairness of elections and the manipulations that go with that."

Meanwhile, A Game of You seems destined to keep Adelaide talking right until Sunday, the festival's final day. Ontroerend Goed have been here before, but playing the fringe rather than the main festival. "I have the feeling that we have a lot more theatregoers her in the Festival Centre, says Smet. "I also feel that people are also a lot more understanding of the kind of show it is, the kind of performance it is. In the fringe it was like 'this is a weird thing' … in a positive way. Also we're in a different building – with airco. Last time it was pretty tough performing for 17 days in the heat."